THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT

The American Framers were cognizant both that government needed adequate powers to operate effectively and that, if such powers were not limited, they could result in the abuse of rights. American ideas of limited government and self-government grew from their English legal heritage and were reflected in the Declaration of Independence, which explained colonial grievances against the English government and articulated the view that governments were established to protect human rights and that legitimate government rests on the consent of the governed.

Learning objectives:

• Identify some of the ways that American conceptions of government were shaped by the Framers’ experiences as Englishmen.
• Understand how the conflict, which eventually resulted in the Revolutionary War, developed between the American colonists and the British.
• Identify the key principles of the Declaration of Independence and their roots in the writings of John Locke.
• Describe the central features of the Articles of Confederation and understand how the weaknesses of the Articles prepared the way for the Constitutional Convention.
• Explain the key features of the Virginia and New Jersey Plans, and how differences between these plans and between various groups of states represented at the Constitutional Convention were compromised.